A's to be on KBWF (95.7 FM), the Wolf

A'S RADIO

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, March 31, 2011

The A's ended their pursuit of a team-owned radio station Thursday and moved on to something entirely new: a country station on the FM dial.

The day before their first regular-season game, the A's signed a four-year agreement with KBWF (95.7 FM), known as the Wolf, to carry all of the team's radio broadcasts, including pre- and postgame shows. The station, located in San Francisco with a transmitter on San Bruno Mountain, has some advantages over previous flagship KTRB (860 AM), including the fact that its signal reaches Berkeley and all areas of the Oakland hills clearly.

The A's have shuffled flagships often, and a desire for stability prompted the bid for ownership of KTRB, which is in receivership. According to Ken Pries, the team's vice president of broadcasting, the A's signed a letter of intent to buy the station at an agreed-upon price more than a month ago. Multiple sources said that the offer was more than double KTRB's likely worth, based on the team's due diligence.

It's believed that the A's bid in the range of $7 million. In addition, the team was preparing to spend an additional $2 million to upgrade the nighttime transmitter.

A week and a half before Opening Night, the A's got a letter from the station's receiver, Susan Uecker, informing them that the games would not be aired if the team did not sign a new broadcasting rights agreement by March 25. There was already an existing agreement for 2011.

Asked potential reasons for such a demand, Pries said, "You can speculate. Leverage? Up the offer? Hardball?"

Uecker did not respond to requests from The Chronicle seeking comment.

Needing to ensure a home for their broadcasts and unsettled by the receiver's last-second demands, the A's began to look elsewhere.

"In one sense, it's too bad we're not in control of our own radio station, which we would have preferred," Pries said, "but there's also a sense of relief that we don't have to take on the obligations and problems of the station as a whole."

The Wolf's FM signal is strong in all nine Bay Area counties, but the A's are seeking affiliates in Monterey and Merced, areas that will not be covered by the flagship or existing affiliates.

The Rangers, Senators, Pirates and Braves have FM flagships, and the Wolf's parent company, Entercom, is a partner with the Red Sox and Royals, along with the Celtics, Saints, Sabres and the Sharks.

There are not believed to be other current bidders for KTRB, and the station's future is unclear.